Currently, the Department of Economics has research teams with the following research focus:
Economic History
Team leader: doc. Ing. Libor Žídek, Ph.D.
The team works on various topics that deal with research on institutions and economic policy in countries that have undergone an economic transformation after 1989. In particular, topics in monetary, fiscal and foreign trade policy. In the context of institutional development, the team is looking at the general link between institutions and economic growth and various aspects of policy development. Another topic the team is working on is the functioning of a centrally planned economy and its transition to a market economy. It also focuses on historical integration and disintegration events and their impact on economic activity.
The research team has established several collaborations with foreign researchers involved in ongoing research projects and publications (J. Horvath - CEU; M. Kopeček - Cambridge). In addition to publishing activities, the team is significantly engaged in domestic and international popularisation of research.
Transport Economics
Team leader: prof. Ing. Martin Kvizda, Ph.D.
The research group deals with transport economics and policy in the following areas: transport demand, transport costs, railway economics, open-access approach, competition and liberalisation in the transport sector, transport accessibility, optimisation of public procurement of transport services, cost-benefit analysis and investment in transport infrastructure projects. The research aims to understand the economic, spatial and social functions of transport, develop skills, methods and best practices for transport policy, and act as an intermediary between academia and industry. The research group founded the Institute for Transport Economics, Geography and Policy ITREGEP (a common platform of MUNI Brno and Charles University Prague). The Institute fills a gap in transport policy analysis, traditionally dominated by technical universities, with transport economics and transport geography contributions. The collaboration of transport economists and geographers from MUNI and UK has enabled the Institute to achieve a critical mass for visibility and international relevance. We have been actively involved in the European debate on how to liberalise rail transport and where it makes sense to build high-speed rail lines. The research group has published its research in reputable industry journals such as Transport Policy, Research in Transportation Economics and the Journal of Transport Economics and Policy.
Macroeconomic modelling
Ing. Jan Čapek, Ph.D., doc. Ing. Daniel Němec, Ph.D.
The main topics include macroeconomic modelling and modelling the socio-economic impacts of climate change. The main research objectives are to analyse fiscal and monetary policy effects and structural breaks, analyse the forecasting performance of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models, and analyse climate change effects on migration and climate change perceptions. The achieved results are published in top journals of the relevant research area. Moreover, the obtained results are of practical relevance. The identified DSGE models are used by the monetary policymakers in the Czech Republic (especially by the Macroeconomic Forecasting Division of the Czech National Bank).
Experimental and empirical microeconomics
doc. Ing. Rostislav Staněk, Ph.D., doc. Ing. Ondřej Krčál, Ph.D., Ing. Štěpán Mikula, Ph.D., Luca Fumarco, PhD
The research group predominantly seeks to use high-quality data to address labor economics and behavioural economics questions. The research group uses two types of methods: it collects original experimental (lab and field) data tailored to address specific human behaviour questions and exploits an exogenous variation in real-world data to identify causal effects through econometric techniques such as DiD or RDD. The group contributes to research in empirical microeconomics in three broad areas: the effect of environment and institutions on labour market outcomes, biases, and non-standard preferences, and recently also conflicts and pro-social behaviour. The research group has published in well-established field journals such as Journal of Urban Economics; Journal of Economic, Behavior and Organization; Journal of Economic Psychology, or Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics.
The Brno Epistemology and Social Ontology Group
The interdisciplinary research group The Brno Epistemology and Social Ontology Group (BESOG) is interested in the nature and structure of social reality and the possibilities and limits of its knowledge. The BESOG group organises a weekly Bráf seminar on readings of texts on the methodology of economics (reading group).
Mgr. Josef Menšík, Ph.D. participates in BESOG on behalf of the Department of Economics.